I'm in operational technology and deal with a lot of on-site tech, such as SCADA, factories, even stuff on trains or planes.
We have 3D lidar mapped files of factories that are scaled in such a way that users can throw on VR and "walk" through the facility and figure things out. It's not completely mature but it's pretty good, and there have been talks about putting a camera on a scooter and letting engineers remotely drive though the place in real-time -- not just the static files.
What do you do with it? erognomics engineering, looking at flows of goods, processes, etc.
You didn't mention it, but same thing is true for remote surgery applicatons.
Telepresence for subject matter experts is a fundamentally new application that is unlocked by AR/VR tech. To nitpick, its more of an industry application rather than a consumer one(apple/meta releasing consumer-targeted products because the market is bigger) - but you're right that it's a good use case. Particularly in time-sensitive cases where industry would have to wait days to fly someone out when they need help immediately. To be fair though... a cell phone video call can already get you maybe half of the way there I'd say(where VR still might only get you to 80% given you cant smell/touch).
I am sure I read similar comments around 2008 - "We have phones with internet connectivity, phones with touchscreens and phones with apps. No iPhone needed".
And yet, here we are. iPhone truly revolutionized phone market and was the first real smartphone.
I'm in operational technology and deal with a lot of on-site tech, such as SCADA, factories, even stuff on trains or planes.
We have 3D lidar mapped files of factories that are scaled in such a way that users can throw on VR and "walk" through the facility and figure things out. It's not completely mature but it's pretty good, and there have been talks about putting a camera on a scooter and letting engineers remotely drive though the place in real-time -- not just the static files.
What do you do with it? erognomics engineering, looking at flows of goods, processes, etc.